Creating your own wildflower meadow

Meadows are places of great beauty. Since the Second World War the UK has lost the majority of its wildflower meadows, replaced with lush green fields of rye grass. It is perhaps one of the saddest habitat changes of the last century, since not only are meadows a creation of natural harmony, they are in the UK largely a product of history and husbandry. Traditional hay meadows are a living record of plant colonisation, the evolution of complexity over many years.

In pre-historic times, meadows occurred in this country where woods did not, they would have been formed by forest fires, wind clearing trees and then kept as grassland by grazing animals. Alpine meadows would have perhaps existed above the tree line. In other countries, these types of meadows are common but we have taken the decisions over time to graze the hills so denying us opportunity to enjoy these habitats. There are still some fragments of meadows left to enjoy, sometimes mere postage stamps in the scheme of things, often run by Wildlife Trusts but it is the Yorkshire Dales that has retained some of the finest. The reason why meadows take so long to establish is that rely on continuity, lack of disturbance and a seed source.

We are trying to allow the fields behind Brodick Castle to become more flowery. The only intervention we have made is to graze only in the summer in most cases, but in some fields to suspend grazing until August. Grazing or cutting is essential to keep a field in the herbaceous stage rather than turning into woodland through shrub and scrub taking hold. Too much grazing will mean that plants do not have a chance to flower and set seed, so generally a meadow is uncut or grazed during the summer. You can create your own meadow by simply not mowing an area. It doesn’t have to be the whole lawn, but a small sunny patch will bring diversity and interest to a garden. If you have a lawn that has been “weeded” over the years, the first showing of flowers may be pretty dull, but over the years as things get a chance to seed in, there will be more variety. Buying wildflower seeds and chucking on the lawn is unlikely to do much good, unless you seek out bare patches (A tip with wildflower mixes is to buy ones without grasses, since grasses will easily find their own way in). If you want to sow seed, you are better off starting with bare soil. Traditionally people have recommended allowing growth for a while to either spray aggressive plant like docks or hand weed before you sow. However we have sown straight onto bare soil with pretty good results. In the first season it is good to cut the meadow often as this reduces nutrients and cuts down on fast growing species. If you feel that your meadow is looking a mess, then you can cut it more often than once a year, you will lose some species, but favour close growing ones. You can always “let the grass go” for a short while, or perhaps every couple of seasons.

The most successful way of increasing the species in a meadow is to plant plugs. If you are green fingered, then grow your own, or if not buy in. The Jupiter wildlife garden in Grangemouth offers great value for these (plug, plug!).

It is important to grow on the plugs until they are well established in 3 inch pots, and then plant out in the Autumn or early spring when the grass is low, in areas that don’t have many species already.

On Arran we have generally neutral to acidic soils, so the range of plants that will grow will be less exotic than in limestone areas. Some plants will struggle in a meadow because of competition, but it is a case of trial and error. In our meadow, Cranesbills, Meadowsweet, Knapweed and Ox-eye daisies are mainstays since the soil is quite rich and wet (really a tall herb meadow).

Finally, in your garden can have fun with a meadow by mixing in non-native species that would be found in meadows in the wild. The garden at Great Dixter is an amazing example of these “fantasy” meadows where they have used showy plants such as Camassia. I have transplanted garden orchids, trilliums and lots of bulbs to achieve a rather interesting effect.

Jupiter wildflower link: http://www2.btcv.org.uk/jwn_species_list.pdf